We often hear about home invasions and muggings done by drug fiends needing to get cash to score their next fix. Alcoholics don't seem to have quite the violence in them to get their fix, but the amount of violence associated with alcohol consumption is still unimaginable.
This story from Florida has just a shadow of an association with alcohol...and that's even too much. The young man in this scenario doesn't sound like someone who can be rehabilitated, but rather, someone who's violence streak will follow him for life. For six bucks, the kid can probably get a cheap bottle of wine or an extremely cheap 12 pack of beer. The unthinkable...for nothing more than a night's buzz. How horribly sad.
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PALM BAY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35, Orlando) --
Palm Bay Police have arrested 16-year-old Alan Michael Tanguay for stabbing a woman to death inside her bedroom late Thursday night.The teen was arrested Monday morning after detectives and SWAT team members searched his home off Vin Rose Circle.
The incident began on Friday when officers found 58-year-old Patricia Kaliszeski murdered inside her home. Officers said the woman sustained multiple stab wounds, including an extremely deep cut across her throat.
Two witnesses came forward who told detectives that Tanguay told them he killed the woman, providing them with details of the murder. Tanguay told the witnesses that he entered the home sometime between late Thursday night and early Friday morning with the intention to rob the place. When he entered the home, Tanguay found the victim sitting on her bed. He told the witnesses he found a knife and approached the woman who attempted to defend herself against the attack.
The witnesses told police Tanguay made statements of having killed others and he had a rule that when he found someone inside the house during a burglary, he had to kill them.
"There's no doubt in my mind he would kill again," Chief Bill Berger said after Tanguay confessed to the crime. "This individual is a self proclaimed psychotic killer and what he did to this victim is beyond words. He needs to be locked up for the rest of his life," the chief added.
Police said the teen stole approximately $6 from the victim which he used to purchase beer.
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4 comments:
Hello again,
I have posted a comment on your article entitled canned heat blues about sterno. which i found googling some things for a topic of discussion at a group therapy session i am attending weekly.
As an addict in recovery i have taken quite an interest in your articles and opinions about addicts/alcoholics.
"home invasions and muggings done by drug fiends needing to get cash to score their next fix"
have you no heart for the still sick and suffering addicts/alcoholics in the world? Or do you simply put them down because you are bias for some reason? referring to addicts as fiends is not only degrading but shows you have no idea of addiction and how it affects the so called "fiends".
Do you think that someone addicted to any substance ever wanted to be? Do you think addicts/alcoholics enjoy this kind of behavior? the answer to both of the above questions is no(in most cases).
The truth is most addicts are good people who have fallen onto the wrong path. 3/4 of the addicts i know became addicted trying to cope with the pressures of modern society, peer pressure, feelings of despondency/depression, stress and others.
Have you ever attended an NA/AA meeting and actually listened to the people who are involved and working a program? Have you ever tried to open your mind to the real world of addiction? Have you ever heard someone share their experience strength and hope(story) at a meeting? My guess is no.
"The young man in this scenario doesn't sound like someone who can be rehabilitated, but rather, someone who's violence streak will follow him for life. "
That's quite a bold statement to make considering you have never met the individual and are basing your entire opinion on one article, and others opinions within it. Why do you think he can't be rehabilitated? just curious, although i don't expect you to respond anyway.
again, no hard feelings and have a nice day,
mitch
mitchell_king@comcast.net
Mitch,
Again, a few good points you raise. Allow me to respond...
First, the young man in this scenario said this himself. His words, not mine. My article quoted him.
As stated before, yes, of course I have sympathy and empathy for addicts. No one since the dawn of time has said, "Ya know?! I want to be an addict!" And by the time someone has reached the depths of addiction (as this young man had), simple stats show he is very, very unlikely to ever be rehabilitated. The numbers are just stacked against the addict.
Have I ever attended an N.A. or an A.A. meeting? Yes, I have. And I am in awe of those who've been addicted, kicked their addiction and chosen to move on and live a better life.
Those who are in the worst of addictions, as you stated in your first comment, do horrible, horrible things. Sometimes violent, sometimes degrading, almost always things they'd have never done if they were sober and clean.
When a person commits a crime, whether intended or unintended, it's difficult for me to have sympathy. Having been the survivor of a crime committed by someone abusing substances, maybe this is my hang up. I do not write them off as a human being, but until that person chooses to get clean, I can't look at why they committed the crime-just at the crime committed.
Mitch, I ask you to take a step back. Think about the things I've written from an angle where you're not offended, not angry at me and whatever comes from my brain. If you have points, I'll gladly listen to them-and I'll do so with an open mind. And, if you'd like, feel free to E mail me personally at the listed E mail address. If it's respectful and makes a point, I'll be happy to respond.
Hello again,
As for the Sterno article, yes i admit i was a bit judgmental of you when in reality i was offended by the message you delivered in the article. I was very disappointed that the country's premeir speaker on drunk driving prevention was sending a message of hopelessness to millions of people world-wide.
I see the point in your response and i will give you the benefit of the doubt by assuming you are being truthful.
I will say though that the way the article was written(again the way it was written and not the response you wrote), it is still one of the most ignorant articles i have ever read. From reading the article the way it was written i could not find a single shred of positivity or inspiration. In fact the only message i was able to pull from the article was that the program that saved my life and many others was useless.
I used the example of your closed mind shitting it's pants to prove a point that drinking Sterno is not even close to the bottom that most addicts face(at least the ones i know), who eventually get clean.
As for the most recent article under discussion, well i am simply more of an "underdog" person. In rehab they would tell us that 1 in 30 will stay clean. honestly that is probably true form what i've seen. But they have no idea what someone is going to do until they do it. I think everyone should have a chance or two.
I was more so offended/concerned by the message you sent when you labeled him as a fiend, and said that he performed the unthinkable for a small amount of booze when you yourself said there was only a shadow of substance involvement with this case.
I may be wrong, and please correct me if i am. Nowhere in the article did it say the young man was an addict. The only thing i can even find in the article referencing substances was the small bit at the end where he spent the money on beer. It clearly states that he has done it before, but nowhere does it state that he has done it for substance funding before.
In my opinion he just decided to get some beer with his bounty this time around, maybe he bought some candy and a stereo the last time around? My point is that he is not an addict buy a psycho-killer, and he should be labeled accordingly.
Thanks for your response, and thank you for being so kind towards my recovery. I have to be honest i did not expect that. I would be interested in the main message you have to share. Perhaps you could provide me with a link to a video of one of your speeches, that would be nice.
again, no hard feelings and have a nice day,
mitch
Hi again, Mitch,
Ya know, a year or so ago, I read an article by a very well known sports writer. In it, he poked fun at people with my disability and used the article to provide his satirical view on life. When I complained about his "take" on things, he gave me a response...the same one I'll give you now: I am quite capable of just writing a shitty article.
My goal is prevention. While I work in a field that has a strong element dealing with substance abuse, I'm not an expert on addiction. I've taken many, many classes on substance abuse/addiction, served an internship with the MO Div. of Highway Safety and the classes they offered on impaired driving, worked heavily with MADD and am routinely working with college students nationwide on making intelligent choices. Still, I am not an addict nor an expert on addiction. My whole thing is prevention. And I'm capable of writing a bad article.
The Sterno piece is intended as prevention. My goal is that readers will practice moderation so as not to end up being the person who consumes things that weren't meant to be consumed. In the early 90s, National Geographic did a gigantic article and spread on the culture of alcohol consumption around the world. One picture I've never forgotten is of a Native American man pouring out the contents of a bottle of Aqua Net hair spray into a cup. That simple image is one that serves as a constant reminder to practice moderation to keep from getting to the point where A.A. is a necessity.
Two final things on these articles:
1. I believe the Sterno article said something to the effect of "If a person has sunk this low, A.A. has little hope of working." Even by your own stats (1 in 30), that's true. I absolutely love AA, NA, any 12 step program that helps people turn their life around. When saying it has little hope of working, I believe I was simply looking at the overall statistics of alcoholism. That was worded badly and I apologize for offending those multitudes who've been given a 2nd chance at life by A.A.
2. Fiend. Fiend, monster, idiot, jerk, criminal. You're right-he could have bought candy with the money. I wasn't there, I didn't witness the crime, I don't know the kid. All I know is what was read in the article. Is he an addict? I don't know. I do know that it was a senseless, senseless crime that he committed for no other reason than getting the means to buy beer (as he admitted to the police, according to the article)
Now, this may be my personal hang up, but here's my take on situations like this young man was in:
We, as a society, must draw the line at committing a crime against innocent people. If a person addicted to crack robs a bank in order to get more money to buy crack, what are we to do? We must prosecute the crime, no matter the reasoning for the crime. That individual has proven that he has little/no self control-and we must protect society from dangerous people. Do we prosecute the crack addicted bank robber different than the non-addicted bank robber? We can't. Once the bank robber is incarcerated, their "correction" can be handled differently, depending on their circumstances. But for the crime itself, we must protect innocent members of society.
It makes me terribly sad to think individuals have addictions so bad they'll do the unthinkable in order to feed that addiction. When said individual walks into an A.A. or N.A. meeting of his/her own free will, THEN I'll support him/her with everything in my being (just as I completely support you in your continued recovery). That person has then seen the error of their ways, realizes how they want a new (and better life) and is willing to humble himself before the world to achieve that life.
If that same person chooses not to get treatment and instead walks into the local 7-11 with a sawed off shotgun...sorry, that's where the line has to be drawn. That person, even though in the sad throes of addiction, has committed a selfish crime which hurts other individuals. Right or wrong, I then label that person a fiend. Can he still get help? Absolutely! But he's got to serve his debt to society first.
Now, having said that, let's go back to personal experience. In my home state of Missouri, those who've committed crimes as addicts make up a good percentage of incarcerated individuals. I think this was your earlier point...they aren't bad people at their core, but the addiction made them do horrible things. And those horrible things landed these people in prison. There is (at least, there was the last time I visited it) one prison in the MO pen system, the medium security prison in Fordland, MO, which specialized in treating addicts. Every inmate had to go through a 12 step program and every inmate was there due to a crime related to their addiction. The overall rate of ex-cons who go back to prison in MO? 80%. This prison which implements the addictions program? 40%. Proof is in the numbers, don't you think?
Again, I have ultimate respect for you and other addicts in recovery. I must draw a line (as our society must, too) of where one's addiction begins to harm others. That line, to me, is the point where a crime is committed against innocent members of society.
My web site is MarcusEngel.com and there's a link to my promo video on the home page. Having been at the receiving end of a crime committed by someone abusing substances, I'm more than happy to admit my view on some of these issues may be pretty hard nosed. I also think my views stand up to most logical and rational questioning-and, as always, I'm capable of writing a bad article.
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